Dease Strait is an east–west

waterway A waterway is any Navigability, navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other ways. A first distinction is ...

between the mainland's

Kent Peninsula Kiillinnguyaq, formerly the Kent Peninsula, is a large Arctic peninsula, almost totally surrounded by water, in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut. Were it not for a isthmus at the southeast corner it would be a long island parallel to the coast. ...

and

Victoria Island Victoria Island () is a large island in the Arctic Archipelago that straddles the boundary between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is the eighth-largest island in the world, and at in area, it is Canada's second-largest i ...

Nunavut Nunavut is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...

, Canada. It is part of the

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, near the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic ...

. At its eastern end, approximately wide, is

Cambridge Bay Cambridge Bay (Inuinnaqtun: Inuktitut syllabics, Inuktitut: ; 2021 Canadian census, 2021 population 1,760; Census geographic units of Canada#Population centres, population centre 1,403) is a Hamlet (place)#Canada, hamlet located on Victoria Is ...

; to the west it widens to approximately and becomes

Coronation Gulf Coronation Gulf lies between Victoria Island (Canada), Victoria Island and mainland Nunavut in Canada. To the northwest it connects with Dolphin and Union Strait and thence the Beaufort Sea and Arctic Ocean; to the northeast it connects with De ...

. The strait is long. The Strait is named after the Canadian explorer

Peter Warren Dease Peter Warren Dease (1 January 1788 – 17 January 1863) was a Canadian fur trader and Arctic explorer. Biography Early life Peter Warren Dease was born at Fort Mackinac on 1 January 1788, the fourth son of Dr. John Dease, an Irish loyali ...

, who was the first to navigate it along with the Scottish explorer

Thomas Simpson Thomas Simpson FRS (20 August 1710 – 14 May 1761) was a British mathematician and inventor known for the eponymous Simpson's rule to approximate definite integrals. The attribution, as often in mathematics, can be debated: this rule had b ...

References

External links

Photo, 2002, Dease Strait freezing over
Straits of Kitikmeot Region Victoria Island (Canada) {{KitikmeotNU-geo-stub